God the Son, Mentor's Guide, MG10

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G O D T H E S O N

more believable and seen to have more credibility than they would today. Second, many of the false ideas seem to us post-moderns as “much ado about nothing,” and don’t have the ring of difficulty for us as it did for them. Finally, these heresies have been, in their original form, laid to rest, so to speak, so it is raising issues that do not have immediate resonance or relevance to us. As much as this may be the case, heresies continue to reify themselves in new ways in our current time, and the ability to identify false Christological teaching is as important today as it was in the time of the Apostles and the Fathers. The citations in this lesson on the various heresies are given in order that you may acquaint your students with the major falsehoods associated with the various dimensions of teaching on the person of Christ. You probably will not have the time to probe these heresies further, but for those students who desire to explore them in greater depth, one book is peerless for their research. The book is entitled Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church by Harold O. J. Brown (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988). It is one of the most thorough and cogent accounts on the kinds of Christological heresies that emerged in the early history of the Church, and what they may mean for our work today as teachers of the Word concerning the person and work of Christ. One of the most helpful aids in training the students on the issues of Christological understanding is to know what the very earliest theologians in the Christian Church believed about Christ. The following quotation is a concise yet remarkably thorough summary of the main tenets of the apostolic fathers on the person and work of Christ. The apostolic fathers share with the entire Church the faith that the one God who exists and who is Creator and Lord of all, has sent to the world His unique Son Jesus Christ. . . . Clement of Rome describes Christ as the Son of God (1 Clem. 36.4), as superior to the angels (1 Clem. 36.2-5, alluding to Heb. 1) and as the one who spoke through the OT (1 Clem. 22.1). Clement can refer to Christ as the “ scepter of the majesty of God ” (1 Clem. 16.2). A triadic form referring to God, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is found in 1 Clement 58.2.

6 Page 73 Summary of Key Concepts